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| Example of a Robin Wade Bench |
Robin Wade is a local furniture designer. While Wade's style could be considered primitive (it follows the natural flow of the wood), it's extremely well made and not at all cheap. Part of Mr. Wade's line consists of furniture reclaimed from the ruins of Phil Campbell. This is good for Phil Campbell, good for the Shoals, and good for Wade.
It seems that one table from the Phil Campbell collection was lent to the staging area for the Rosenbaum home. We're not sure whose idea this was originally, since Wade's furniture has little connection to the smooth Usonian lines created by Frank Lloyd Wright. Nevertheless, the loan of such functional art is good publicity for both Wade and the City of Florence.
Several readers have contacted us about an alleged feud that has now arisen between Wade and Libby Jordan, curator of the Rosenbaum Home. Wade wanted his table back to lend to a larger museum in Montgomery. Why was this a problem? We're not sure, but Wade has publicly commented that he had to fight to get it back.
Hmmmm. We would assume that Mr. Wade would have enough business savvy not to lend any of his high end pieces without some legal document spelling out the details. The fight makes an interesting piece of fluff for the water cooler crowd and gets Wade's name out there. We're not sure what it does for the City of Florence and the Rosenbaum Home...
Shoalanda
Shoalanda,
ReplyDeleteRobin here. So sorry for confusion (that I caused!). Please let me clarify a bit.
Last week, i stopped by the Rosenbaum staging area to borrow the table for the weekend's Museum of Alabama grand opening ceremony. When I asked Libby Watts Jordan if I could "borrow it" for the weekend. She said no (joking) because it had been well received.
One more note; The Phil Campbell table is not a "collection". I made it (and one other smaller table) from a downed tree from the that devastated the small community of Phil Campbell. I promised the mayor back two years ago, that I would make a table from it and donate 100% of proceeds to benefit the community (actually the $ will help pay for a movie that is being made presently. The movie's goal is to bring a second round of attention, fund raising efforts as well as a hope for industry, that would also benefit Phil Campbell tremendously.
Libby Jordan is quite supportive of the fund raising effort for Phil Campbell. She actually was doing the town of Phil Campbell a favor in displaying it.
btw: Saturday during the Museum of Alabama grand opening ceremonies, the governor and his entourage stopped by, seemed quite impressed with the table, the story, and the plight of Phil Campbell (which he was quite aware of).
Again, so sorry for my confusing blog post. I'll try to be more careful in the future.
So, in summary, no feud, no fight over the location of a piece of a "line" of furniture for sale. Only a few locals who love our local community, are so proud of the wonderful direction and positive vibes and creativity everywhere, and are trying to help one of our neighboring communities out in our own way.